#1 2013-12-02 16:41:15

mpemburn

Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out how to create User Meeting folders programmatically as new users  —those who will be meetings hosts—create accounts on my website.  Our Adobe Connect account is restricted to a single host, so I can simply add them to the Meeting Hosts group (something I could do with the eval account).  Once I've created the folder, I need to be able to get its folder-id so that I can create a meeting within it.  Is this possible?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

Jorma_at_CoSo

Re: Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Most trial accounts are set up under the concurrent attendee license model, which limits the number of people in meetings concurrently, not the number of hosts. The Named Host license model, which you indicate you have, limits the number of individuals who can host/run meeting rooms, so the Meeting Host group is limited to one user account. So, you can't list multiple users in your Meeting Host group.

However, you could easily create a folder in the Shared Content library, and then give an Administrator Group (Group created by the administrator) and give that group permissions to the objects in that folder. Then anyone you create a user account for in your system and add to that group would have access to that content.

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CoSo Cloud
Adobe Certified Instructor

mpemburn

Re: Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Excellent—thank you!  I'll give that a try. :-)

mpemburn

Re: Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Hi again,

Hmm.  After thinking about this and looking at the docs again, I am getting the uncomfortable feeling that there is no way to do what I _really_ need to do which is to programmatically create meetings within those folders I've created without having a second host account.  It would seem that _only_ members of Meeting Hosts can create meetings and there can only be _one_ member of Meeting Hosts on this type of account.  The plan was to create the meetings through our site, then hand off the single Meeting Host baton to each presenter as the time for their meeting came up.  We planned to add more host licenses later as demand (and revenue) increased.  Are there any holes in my assumptions?

Thanks,

Mark

Jorma_at_CoSo

Re: Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Administrators can create meetings as well (you would be using an admin login for the API work anyhow). Admins can't activate the meetings though, that is exclusively available to the member(s) of the Meeting Host group.

You are correct in there only being one Meeting Host group member on your account as it stands now. So, that means that you are shuffling people in and out of that group as they needed (kind of a licensing gray area), and that can be a fair bit of programmatic work. You may need to set up something that adds the individual to the Meeting Host group as you create the room (I'd probably have a folder structure in the Shared Meetings folder where I would create these rooms), and then when the session is over you make a call to remove them from the Meeting Host group, leaving it ready to be populated the next time you need it.

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CoSo Cloud
Adobe Certified Instructor

mpemburn

Re: Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Thanks Jorma!

Good to know that administrators can create meetings.  That'll save a step.  Need to try this out next.

The scheme I've come up with and am now in the midst of testing out is to run a cron script that checks the current (or most recent) webinar times and the next one coming up, then programmatically remove the host of the expired meeting from the Meeting Hosts group and add the host of the next meeting to that group.  It's tricky (esp. considering timezone issues) but I'm pretty sure I can do it.

As for being in a "licensing gray area": I made it very clear to the sales person who signed us up with Adobe Connect what we needed to do and he raised no objection at the time.  Now that we've signed on the dotted line, he is mentioning this same "gray area" issue and pointing at the contract that "clearly states" what we have purchased.  I call bullsh*t.  As I said, above, I was basing my assumptions—and many hours of coding—on the behavior of the evaluation account and was told in answer to my explicit question that the paid account would behave exactly the same as the eval account.  This is _CLEARLY_ not the truth.  Feeling a bit burned.

Mark

Jorma_at_CoSo

Re: Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Sorry to hear that you were put in that situation by your reseller. That is frustrating, but you do have options and there are other resellers, if you feel a need to change (cough, cough, slight shameless self promotion). At the same time, maybe you have some leverage come renewal time to get a deal worked out, to make up for it all!

The licensing of Connect is, for lack of a better word, complicated. Having someone who can confidently, clearly and honestly explain all the pros and cons of the different licenses can be hard to find. And sometimes we are just human, and omit something important o.O

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CoSo Cloud
Adobe Certified Instructor

mpemburn

Re: Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Jorma,

I'll be charitable and say that the reseller was just bein' human and didn't hear what I was saying.  This still leaves me (not to mention my client) in a bind.  A few minutes ago, I Googled the language describing the Named Host in the contract and found this:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Adobe-ge … S.55226357

. . . which explains a lot.

Perhaps I can solicit your advice?  This is our plan: To offer, when we come up to full strength, at least one webinar every two hours, 24 hours a day.  The webinars will be hosted by any of perhaps dozens of teachers, each of whom, perforce, will have their own account.  The target participation in the webinars is between 10 and 100 but, since we are just starting out, this could be at the smaller end until the money starts coming in.  Can you tell me what kind of account(s) would allow this to happen as planned?  Would that be the "concurrent attendee" model?

Thanks,

Mark

Jorma_at_CoSo

Re: Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Fair enough.

That is a good explanation, I know we tried to put the licenses available in plan English here: http://www.realeyes.com/blog/2012/04/17 … licensing/

Either way, glad to hear you are on the same page as your licensing, so you at least know what you have.

Looking at your business goal, I'd say you could look at one of two licensing options. We keep price out of the forum discussions, and since you are working with a reseller, I'll leave that portion of this discussion to them.

Concurrent User licenses: This is, as you saw in the trial account, a license for an individual to be in any meeting room at any given time. So with 100 concurrent users you could have any number of meetings running at the same time, with up to 100 total attendees in them.

Seminar/Webinar licenses: These licenses allow you to have rooms that seat between 200 and 1500 people. There are some scheduling restrictions, that may warrant getting two seminar rooms to avoid any access issues, http://blogs.adobe.com/adobeconnect/201 … nges.html. This would be something that may best fit the model you are looking at, and probably your budget. You can have as many instances of these seminar rooms as you want/need, but only can use one (other than in the stand-by mode) instance at at time. So two licenses would allow for 30 min to an hour of overrun for any given session. Also, since the license is for the room, you can name anyone as a seminar host, and have them run their own session.

Does that make sense?

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CoSo Cloud
Adobe Certified Instructor

mpemburn

Re: Creating folders for users/getting the folder-id

Jorma,

Yes, makes perfect sense.  If you don't mind, I'd like to take this discussion out of the forum.  I'll be contacting you.  Thanks again!

Mark